Friends,
The first item below was written by Amer Abdelhadi, of Nablus, who has been writing daily forthe last few weeks about the state of the curfew in Nablus. We will try to put an archive of thesewritings on our website soon – www.palsolidarity.org
The second item, ” Celebrating the Sabbath ” is a personal account written by Jennifer, aninternational activist in Palestine, witnessing a very powerful form of Palestiniannonviolent resistance — only one of the many forms of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to avery violent occupation, that’s just not sexy enough for the mainstream media to report on.
Dear Friends
Sunday, September 8th,2002.
Curfew days are getting longer, in Palestinian minds anyway.The things that are happening on a daily base are repeated over and over like a snow ball withnothing in the horizon to slow it down. On the contrary the only thing that moving forward isIsraeli escalation of violence against Palestinians.
It wasn’t just another day in the curfew for Nazih Abdelhadi on the eve of August 15th when hereceived a phone call from his jewelry workshop neighbors to inform him that the army weresearching and vandalizing his workshop -near the old city of Nablus- and preparingsomething. Not a long while later, the same neighbors called again to tell him that the soundsthat shook the whole city were actually the sounds of the demolition of the floor where Nazih’sworkshop was.
I met Nazih whilst walking in the old city when the curfew was lifted few days later. He urged meto go up to his workshop. He was urging everyone to go up and have a look. The whole floor wastotally damaged, the sealing was down in several places while the ground was covered in debrismixed with bits and peaces of tape recorders, radios, small TVs and molds for bracelets, ringsand necklaces.
The floor was partitioned in three parts; two jewel workshops and a repair shop for smallelectrical appliances. Does this look like an explosives factory? Nazih was asking anyonewho was prepared to listen. The damage was massive and underrated. Everybody was complainingto everybody about their own losses.
Mohannad Fakher-Eldin is the owner of the building that was attacked. No one had suffered asmuch as me he said. In the April incursion, an Army tank shelled the top floor of the buildingnext door causing it to drop down on mine. I lost all the balconies and all the window frames andglass. This time they finished me and my building for nothing. No evidence of explosives orcomponents was found in any of the workshops, he said angrily
The army had spent quite a while in the Fakher-Eldin building that housed in addition to theworkshops, a dental clinic, several textile workshops, a cafe and some warehouses.Everything was vandalized Mohannad said as he took me for a tour in the ruined building. Thedental clinic was totally destroyed, all the materials that are used by dentists were mixedtogether to leave everything behind useless. The cafes was also cleaned out, the Arjeelas -Hubble Bubble water pipes, were wrecked as the soldiers had obviously tried to use them. Thechairs and tables were smashed and the coffee beans and tea leafs were mixed together. Out ofall places in the city, they picked my building. Who is going to pay for all the repairs? I cannoteven tell if I can rebuild aggravated Mohannad said. ?Some realtors informed him that thebuilding may have to be brought down and built again for safety.
I ran a little research and found that the army had found nitric acid in the workshops which iscommonly used by all jewelers. They can’t expect to convince the world that every jewelers’workshop is a factory for explosives, Nazih said. What’s happening here is the result of theworld’s ignorance and the green light that Americans are giving the Israelis.
Two nights before, the army have surrounded my neighborhood and brought all men between theages of 15-50 down to the streets where they had their names and ID cards checked. They checkedmine through their long printed lists and also through their command using their radiosystem. If I was on the wanted list, I would be in jail now. Where did they get the explosivesfactory claims from, Nazih wondered. They blew up most of the jewelers workshops to destroyNablus, not my workshop alone, Nazih concluded. The Jewelry market is one of Nablus famoustrades.
The demolitions are becoming a Business as usual policy for the army; No witnesses are everavailable to support the army’s finding, no evidence is ever found to prove the charges and noplace is left intact to prove anything anyway.
During the curfew, people are prevented from their basic self defense rights. No one is given achance to see, hear or smell anything that may challenge the Israeli claims. Oppressions areperformed just like the curfew; under the world’s eyes but without their intervention.
War crimes are taken place for the world to see. The curfew has been imposed on Nablus Nearlythree months, EIGHTY DAYS. The world is watching, yet has done little.
Amer Abdelhadi
General Manager
Radio Tariq Al Mahabbeh
TMFM 97.7
Nablus Under Siege
P.S. A news flash on Radio Tariq Al Mahabbeh just confirmed that the curfew is not to be liftedtomorrow. That makes 81 days in this curfew. The world community is waiting. I wish I knew what they are waiting for.
Update from Jennifer 09.06.02
Celebrating the Sabbath
Today I came as close as I may ever be to attending anIslamic prayer service with about 1,500 worshipingfarmers.
This morning I spent at the small village of Falimiawhere our small band of 4 international volunteers hadbeen invited back to the community where we had been 2days earlier, walking through rich, fertile farmland,past rows and rows of greenhouses, and among orchardsof fruit-laden olive/orange/lemon trees. The very landthat the Israeli military has begun to confiscate andplow under. That day, we had walked along the redspraypainted numbers, marked by surveyors where theconstruction will take place. Marks appeared on rocksas close as 3 meters from people’s homes, on thetrunks of ancient olive trees and the poles and tarpsof industrial-sized greenhouses. And the drinkingwater beneath the ground would also fall under theever expanding Israeli Occupation.
Today, we were present to witness the villagers’demonstration of commitment to their land and homes.For nearly 2 hours, the men and boys of thesurrounding villages came here to worship, not in themosque but in the fields among their crops. It was anincredibly powerful sight: young children andcane-supported old men, all farmers, seated on theland cultivated by their fathers and their fathers’fathers’ and their fathers’ fathers’ fathers and onand on. The past and the future together to pray forpeace and for assistance from the only resourcecurrently available to them. I watched from the shadeof a fruit tree as the men and boys one-by-onewashed their hands, their faces and their feet fromwater of an irrigation faucet. They then carefullyslipped their sandles on and walked to a placein the fallow field, spread their prayer mat, removedtheir shoes and sat silently, listening to the songsof worship. It was an incredibly powerful act ofnonviolent resistance and of their refusal of theIsraeli confiscation.
At the end of the service, several of them wereinterviewed by a television reporter and I had myfirst appearance on mass media television. Regretably,
I doubt this story will reach Israel or the UnitedStates. But for today, the villagers thanked us forbeing with them, for witnessing their struggle,and joining our voices with their prayers in breakingthe silence.